27 July 2011

This is a game of Secrets of the Third Reich played yesterday, me and my buddy Calle tried out our armies for the Swedish SoTR Tournament set in August - and while we was at it we played one of the new scenarios I wrote for that tournament. For the tournament we are going to recycle 4 scenarios, some of them tweaked a little - and 2 new ones. And the new ones are pretty much your regular "fight" scenarios where two forces clash in a mindless frenzy, as we did not have any of those last year. However I made sure you got points for a lot of things rather than have it specifically about killing enemy units.

The scenario is called "Night Patrols" and the full details and victory conditions go like this:

"The brass had the brilliant idea of sending your patrol around the enemy encampment to deliver a stab in the back. Unfortunately the enemy high command had the same idea and both platoons bump into each other in the middle of the night. Not much you can do about it now, kill as many of theirs as you can but try to keep your casualties on acceptable levels should you win and need to proceed with the original plans.

Deployment:
Roll D6. On 1-3 players deploy 24” deep on the short sides of the table. On 4-6 players deploy 12” deep on the long side of the table.

Mission and victory conditions:
As this battle was not planned for it is very much a confused shootout. Try to inflict as many casualties as possible and keep yourself alive!

1VP for killing enemy force commander
1VP for surviving with your own force commander 1VP for preventing enemy non support units to end the game in your deployment zone
2VP for keeping your platoon above 50%
3VP for reducing the enemy to below 25%
2VP for destroying all enemy non vehicle support options OR vehicles (pick one category at the start of the game). In the event of the enemy platoon having neither then the killing of the enemy platoon commander and surviving with your own is increased by 1VP each.

Limitations: Units arriving by air were ahead of the ground forces and had to turn around in order to join the fight. As such no troops may arrive by air during turn 1.

TIME LIMIT 3h/6 turns"

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The game was 55RP per side. Me playing the US armored infantry and Calle playing German Mech Grenadiers. None of us had any vehicles so it was two infantry heavy armies. Both platoons were Veteran and had body armor.

Both sides enjoyed the cover of the dark, though my US chameleon snipers and the APE squad also had infra red technology so they could fire at well without restrictions to their line of sight. Before anything happened the Germans fired off their mortar and killed my medic! So there went my plan to make use of the "immortal" combo of Medic+Detroit engineering rules for the APE's during the maintenance phase.

Both sides moved up during the first turn, the APE's hauled ass like never before to get away from the mortar target. The Germans sent their werewolves ahead of the main army trying to flank my teams. The Chameleon sniper up in the church tower made short work of one immediately, killing the beast with a well placed anti mech rifle round through the chest. Not much fighting or shooting during turn 1.

Turn 2 things started to heat up as both sides started to move within 18" of the enemy thus being visible despite the cover of dark. Sporadic fighting on the flanks, the Panzeraffe roaring like crazy and unleashing a hail of HMG rounds killing 4 US troops and injuring 1 ! On the opposite flank US troops ran across the graveyard to take cover behind the stone wall and came under fire from the Germans which wounded 2 men. The light mortar repositioned its fire and hit the APE squad square in the face but failed to inflict any damage. The APE's walked up to have a better view of the enemy and obliterated the Panzerschreck team with their massed firepower and firing a Bazooka round at the German mortar observer but failed to hit anything.

In the meantime a second Werewolf was killed by a US fireteam, but the 3rd and last beast reached its target and charged the US troops who passed their horror check and stood their ground - they were soon backed up by the Engineer squad which charged the werewolf from behind. In the other alley across the street a German squad and a US fireteam bumped into each other which resulted in grenades being thrown around and small arms fire in a confined space, wounding and killing soldiers on both sides but without inflicting any disorganized results on either force.

The German vampire sneaked about the battlefield in mist form, invulnerable to anything the US had to shoot at him with as long as he stayed that way. During the close combat between the US troops and the Werewolf 2 men were ripped to shreds before the beast was killed by a single extremely lucky attack (soldier won the close combat with 1, and then rolled a 6!).

My Jet Rangers decided to arrive at the scene, unfortunately there were really no good landing spot, I decided to drop at the fields across from the German mortar team and kill the enemy next turn. However a whole damn German squad appeared and while moving into cover of the woods they also fired back at me in the fields killing 3 and wounding the remaining 2 jet rangers, rendering the entire squad useless and whimpering.

On the flank with the German command team and their pet Panzeraffe a lone US soldier tried to avenge his fallen comrades by throwing a grenade at the incoming enemy - two turns in a row. The first turn the grenade came back at him but exploded harmlessly, the second turn however the Germans threw it back with better timing and I ended up killing my soldier with his own grenade! That left the Germans free to romp about with their monkey and its toy. Trying to prevent the enemy from reducing my victory points and sent out the Command squad and my sniper to stop them. This attracted the attention of the German vampire which charged my command team and killed the Staff sergeant making the rest of the command to flee in panic.

Nearby a sniper duel took place between my US sniper and the German sniper appearing from cover, he failed to hit me while I managed to kill him. Firing Light AT rounds from the church tower I tried to pick out the enemy Lieutenant but he was obscured by his own troops - so I fired at the Panzeraffe and actually managed to kill the beast with a bit of luck on the damage roll!

The Germans were badly beaten, and I had lost a good deal of troops myself, but my left flank pushed hard against the Germans, attacking their infantry squad with 3 teams I ended up destroying them. My Jet rangers had been finished by that time anyway, this also led me within the minimum range of the light mortar so it could no longer fire at me! The Vampire tried to charge my command squad again but I withdrew in an organized fashion out of its reach. The next turn I managed to gun down the vampire with the commander and the remaining soldier wielding an assault rifle. Both sides ran into the enemy deployment zones preventing victory points being achieved for protecting your positions.
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The game ended 6-1 to the US side.

I had lost 28 models and had 25 left, so clearly below 50%. The enemy were well below 25% however.

So I scored 3VP for killing the enemy patrol below 25%. 1VP for surviving with my commander. And another 2VP for killing all enemy support options.

The enemy scored 1VP for surviving with their commander

We both think the scenario worked as it was intended, my opponent will drop his Werewolves and replace them with a Drop Trooper unit which I think will be a better choice. I would have replaced them with Wolf Runners but he does not have that unit in his collection.